The Other Member of the Team (Not an OC Story)
by Zone-Blitz
Summary: Young Justice just got its ass kicked. Changes are being made to the team, including bringing in a hero who's just a little bit insane.


The Other Member of the Team

Prologue 1: What the Hell Just Happened?

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-Author's Note-

Hi all, if glad you could stop in for a read. This chapter and the following chapter have been sitting on my computer for months now. I was doing some routine cleaning when I stumbled across them and read them over. I cleaned them up a bit and figured, 'What the hell, won't be the worst thing posted on this site today.'

This story comes from my deep seeded hatred of the "Young Justice" cartoon. It's not a bad show, but like it's predecessor "Teen Titans" it could be "HOLY BALLS" levels of epic if it took a few more risks and was willing to get it's hands a bit dirty like the comic. With that in mind, the reason for this story was to add a little bit of hardcore to this show. Ideally there's a bit more realism in this than there is in the show.

It's not an OC story. The character known as Moon-Knight is an actual Marvel hero (stop booing). I choose him because he's fricking awesome and also blood thirstily insane enough to kick this thing into high gear. If you don't know anything about Moon-Knight, stop reading this and head to your nearest comic book store. If you're not willing to do that, than don't worry I'll be providing necessary insight in the Author's Note. He doesn't even show up in the first chapter so you can relax.

Last thing: I'm gonna be honest. I'm not going to finish this. I write these to make my brain shut up and once that happens I lose motivation. Take it for what it's worth. Reviews are appreciated.

Don't own a damn thing, and am not making a dime off of this piece.

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Robin had never gone into outer space before, and under normal circumstances, he probably would've been fascinated by the experience. Instead, he was brooding, going over each and every decision that led him to his current predicament. The rest of the team was in a similarly contemplative mood, even Wally, who seemed to have managed to suppress his ADHD in the interest of self-preservation, was sitting quietly on one of the benches outside of the meeting room.

Occasionally, one of the five assembled heroes would look up at the door, behind which the fate of their team was being decided. The two absent teammates were a constant reminder of what had happened and how badly they'd messed up.

Ms. Martian was lying in a stasis chamber while the most advanced technology of dozens of species tried to keep her alive for long enough that her body would begin to heal naturally. None of her teammates had understood practically just how flammable their alien teammate was. The flames of Deathstroke's flamethrower hadn't done much more than singe Robin's eyebrows, but M'gann had gone up like a bundle of tinder doused in gasoline. The doctors gave her even odds to recover, and those odds were much improved over what they were twenty-four hours previously.

The other missing teammate, Kaldur, was in the Watchtower's meeting room. When Batman had announced that the Justice League was, "requesting a meeting as to review the actions of Young Justice in their last operation" the entire team knew that Kaldur was going to get ripped a new one by most of the Justice League. The only support that they could offer their leader was some awkward eye contact that while meaning to be reassuring, came off more as fatalistic.

Aqua-Man wasn't sure that the current line of questioning was fair, but Batman and Diana were going over every possible detail with the attention to detail, and the compassion, that one would expect from a particularly ornery trial lawyer. Kaldur was doing well under adverse circumstances, but the only course of action that was available to him was to take the dressing-down like a man. M'gann's memory of the situation was displayed on the monitor in the front of the room, and after every question, it would be referred to and a decision would be made, it didn't paint a flattering picture of any member of the new team. Kaldur looked no better and no worse than any of the other teenagers, but one of the responsibilities as leader was to fall on his sword to defend the team, and that's what Kaldur was doing.

"Kaldur, were you aware that the Assassin, Wilson Slade, also known as Deathstroke, had an accelerated healing factor?" Batman inquired.

"I was aware," Kaldur responded.

"How were you aware of this?" Batman asked.

"It was in the pre-mission briefing, that you, yourself administered to us," Kaldur answered.

Diana took over, changing the line of questioning to keep Kaldur off balance, "Describe your first encounter with Wilson Slade,"

"The team was split into groups. To reach our entry point into the factory, we had to go through the pipes underneath the facility. The blueprints that we received in our briefing, didn't have a map of the building's plumbing, so we were forced to find our own way in. I decided that the team should split into groups, because the plumbing was like a maze, and it increased our chances of getting somebody into the facility," Kaldur started to explain.

"You intentionally separated your team when going into unknown, hostile, territory?" Batman questioned.

"The mission was the priority, and it was time sensitive. We couldn't afford to spend hours running around underneath the building. We needed to get in and recover the package," Kaldur explained, with obvious frustration.

Diana scribbled something furiously down in her note pad. It could have said nothing, but Kaldur looked as though Superboy had just punched him in the gut. Aquaman felt a little bit bad for his apprentice as he watched the proceedings. Batman and Diana were a well-oiled machine, ripping the kid apart and laying his mistakes in front of all of his idols. Splitting up wasn't even the wrong move necessarily; the Justice League did it all the time in similar situations, but the proceedings were meant to devastate Kaldur so that he would tell nothing but the whole truth.

"Proceed with your explanation," Diana stated, pen out, ready to write down more information.

"Robin and I were travelling through the main water main. He had his rebreather on and I'm capable of aquarius-respiration. We reached the main cistern, where we could enter the facility covertly, but Deathstroke was waiting for us. The second we exited the main tank, he jumped on us. I would've died but Robin was ready and deflected the sword strike aimed for my head," Kaldur explained.

"How could Deathstroke be waiting for you if it was supposed to be a covert operation?" Batman asked, giving Kaldur a chance to save a little bit of face in the eyes of the Justice League.

"We've personally discussed the mounting pile of evidence that there is a traitor amongst the team. I would say that this is just more evidence of that," Kaldur explained.

"Can you give me one reason why the Young Justice team should be allowed to continue, knowing that any mission you go on, could be compromised before you're even on site? Any moment one of your teammates could stab you in the back and that would be the end of one of your life. I don't have a sidekick on your team, but if I were a mentor or parent, I wouldn't allow my apprentice or child to put themselves at risk in such a way. It's bad enough when you know who your enemies are," Diana stated.

"Did you take any actions to limit the possibility of the mission being compromised?" Batman asked

"I informed the team with as little advanced warning as was practical. Planning needed to happen, but I tried to limit opportunities for my teammates to make contact with anybody on the outside. I also . . ." Kaldur started, but then trailed off.

"You what?" Batman asked

"I set up the teams in such a way that a betrayal would be of limited effectiveness," Kaldur said.

"In what manner did you do this?" Diana asked.

"As Batman knows, I've suspected Artemis for some time," Kaldur explained. He winced, ready for the outburst from Green Arrow and several other heroes, but no yelling occurred. Not even a flicker of emotion traveled across the assembled faces.

"I went with Robin, as team leader, I couldn't be worried about betrayal, I needed to stay focused on the mission the entire time. Artemis, Superboy, and M'gann made up team two. My hoping was that if Artemis did take hostile action, she would be discovered by M'gann and intercepted preemptively. If she did get a shot off, I suspected that Superboy was the best person to take that shot and still be an effective member of the team when the mission continued," Kaldur answered, expecting some anger from Superman and Martian Manhunter, whose charges he had placed in a position to be ambushed.

There was no anger, just nods of understanding from many of the heroes assembled. His plan was heartless, but the Justice League approved of it.

"What happened with Slade?" Batman asked.

"The alarms in the facility were going off, and Slade was attacking Robin. Our cover was busted, so I broke radio silence and called for assistance. Superboy broke through a half dozen walls to get to us and M'gann and Artemis followed closely behind. I can only assume that Zatanna did something similar with her magic, because she and Wally were there not long after.

Slade had some backup, about twenty-five soldiers who knew to fire at the members of the team who were vulnerable to bullets. Our team got forced into a defensive fight and our synergy went to hell. Superboy ended up fighting Deathstroke, one on one, while the rest of us tried to deal with the soldiers. Slade had a jammer of some sort, so M'gann's telekinesis was gone."

"Kaldur, are you not capable of controlling water?" Diana interrupted.

"I am," Kaldur answered, not liking the line of questioning.

"Why did you not use the water from the Water Main from which you entered to wipe the battlefield clean. Surely a pipe big enough to swim through would hold a sufficient amount of water," Diana asked.

"I confess, at the time, I was rattled. Slade came out of nowhere, and then I was trying to rescue M'gann as she became vulnerable without her telekinesis. In hindsight, I should've swept all the soldiers into the Water Main and then focused the team on assisting Superboy," Kaldur admitted, seemingly shocked at his own failure.

Diana scribbled furiously, before nodding, "Please continue,"

"To make a long story short, we won our fights. Slade, for all of his skills, was at a huge disadvantage against Superboy, who's bigger, faster, and stronger. The soldiers were at an even bigger disadvantage against the rest of the team, even with M'gann incapable of telekinesis.

Superboy threw Slade into a wall, where he hit the ground, clearly unconscious. Robin got a batarang amongst the soldiers which exploded and wrecked their cohesion. From there, Robin, Superboy, and myself, managed to get in close where our hand to hand advantage was enough to win out over their superior numbers," Kaldur surmised.

"So your team won despite your leadership, not because of it," Batman questioned.

"The team that I lead is talented. Often it is not in the best interest of the team for me to start giving out assignments in the middle of a fight. Robin and Superboy in particular, often do not need guidance, Robin because his understanding of tactics surpasses my own, and Superboy because his role is simple, any input on my part would just confuse him.

Having such a talented team allows me to accomplish other tasks that need to get done. The entire team was so focused on the enemy, that nobody noticed Slade's jammer disable M'gann's powers. If the team was reliant on me to order them every step of the way, I wouldn't have been able to pull M'gann to safety," Kaldur stated, defending his actions.

"You avoided Batman's question, so I'll ask it in a different way. On a scale of 1 to 10, give yourself a grade in this particular engagement," Diana ordered.

A moment of silence followed as Kaldur thought about his response, "I'd give myself a 6."

Batman snorted derisively, but Diana was the one who spoke, "You'll receive your grade along with comments from the reviewers at the end of this session."

"What happened after your initial encounter?" Batman asked.

"We ended following a long hallway to where you suspected the package probably was stored. On our way there was when Slade ambushed us again. All of a sudden, there was a hole where a wall used to be and Slade had a flamethrower leveled at our heads. Robin managed to knock the barrel up into the air, but we still caught a little bit of the heat. Superboy slammed Slade backwards where he collapsed. That was when we realized that M'gann had caught on fire. I tried to douse the flames, but it wasn't working. Robin finally stopped the flames by setting off one of his subzero batarangs. It froze M'gann but also extinguished the flames. M'gann obviously needed immediate medical attention, and wasn't in any shape to pilot the bio-ship, so we called for a rescue," Kaldur explained.

"You've indicated that you were aware that Wilson Slade had an accelerated healing factor," Diana stated.

"Buy you left him unconscious at your backs, knowing that he could wake up at any second," Batman continued.

"Did you make any effort to restrain Slade?" Diana asked.

"Did you take any actions to accelerate your plan so as to limit the risk of Slade catching you?" Batman questioned.

"No, to both questions. I didn't alter the plan at all." Kaldur responded while Diana scribbled.

"What was your thought process, when Slade was unconscious? You knew he could come to at any second, but you made no effort to restrain him. Or take more drastic action. Either the pressure got to you, and you forgot, or you didn't take the necessary, but distasteful, action." Diana accused.

"The only resource we had to restrain Slade was one of Robin's batarangs. Slade's proven that he can slip out of one in a few seconds, so I deemed it more prudent to conserve resources for later in the mission," Kaldur hedged, uncomfortable with what Wonder Woman was hinting at.

"Then you needed to make the decision as a leader, that Slade needed to be killed," Batman stated with steel in his tone. An uncomfortable muttering filled the room, but nobody objected to the comment.

"The Justice League doesn't kill people," Kaldur said, repeating one of the lines that Superman threw out to the press with regularity.

"Don't be naive Kaldur. The business, that you and I are involved in, is a brutal one. Occasionally killing is necessary. We don't encourage everyone to go out and start slaughtering villains when they can be apprehended without loss of life. But if you're forced to make the choice between the life of a villain and putting your team at risk, I expect you to make the rational choice." Batman explained, with a curious mix of distaste and fury.

"I . . . yes sir," Kaldur answered, his stomach clenching from thinking about the responsibility that might be put on his shoulder in any future mission. If there was going to be future mission, he amended.

"The thing that I find truly disturbing about this situation is that none of your teammates said anything. Robin in particular should've pointed out the mistake you were making, but he didn't. Why is that?" Batman questioned.

"I have no answer to your inquiry, though if I were to guess, I would suggest that asking a fourteen year old boy to be responsible for the death of another human, is a request that isn't going to be met with much enthusiasm. Making such a suggestion would isolate him from the rest of the team. I have a hard time imagining that Robin has many friends in his civilian life, assuming that Robin has a civilian life, so sabotaging the relationship he has with the only people his own age probably isn't desirable," Kaldur explained.

"If that was his thinking, then Zeus save us from overemotional teenagers. Your team's failure could've easily cost us the package, which could've endangered every person on the planet. If Robin doesn't realize that his relationship with his teammates is of a lesser priority, than he's too immature to handle a role on your team." Diana stated, becoming visibly angry.

"Robin will go through his own mission review with the League, and he will have one with me. Robin's role in this whole mess will be hashed out. Right now, we're dealing with Kaldur," Batman interrupted. Even in his current circumstances, Kaldur felt bad for his youngest teammate. A personal debriefing with Batman couldn't be anything other than a miserable experience.

"Fair enough, Kaldur, why did extraction take over half an hour? You flew to the mission site in ten minutes, but when your team needed to move, they couldn't get up in the air for half an hour. What happened?" Diana asked.

"Young Justice flew to the mission site in M'gann's bio-ship. That was our only exit plan. None of us can control her ship, and with her unconscious we were trapped on the ground. We radioed for help and were lucky that Superman was in the neighborhood," Kaldur explained.

"You're telling me that you didn't have a secondary egression point?" Diana asked, more than a little bit stunned.

"We did, but all of our plans required M'gann to pilot her bio-ship. With her unconscious, we were grounded," Kaldur explained, trying to not sound like a complete failure as a leader.

"Zeus save us!" Wonder Woman shouted exasperatedly.

"We've got to change the team," Batman stated, once Kaldur had left the conference room.

"I'm open to suggestions," Superman responded.

"They're too immature to be heroes. Shut it down," Diana offered her opinion.

"They're doing good work and gaining valuable experience in the process. The team has too much value to simply shut down," Batman argued.

"Put a role model on the team," Flash suggested.

"Do the opposite," Green Arrow suggested.

"What?" Superman asked, confusion visible.

"This team has too much raw talent. They've become used to coasting, trusting Super-Boy to take on the other side's toughest guy and winning, trusting Robin to out duel his counterpart in the mental chess match. The issue isn't a lack of talent, the issue is that they're soft. Nobody on this team fights angry, nobody likes causing pain," Green Arrow explained.

"I'd say Superboy fights angry," Flash countered.

"Super-Boy is a bully. Against weaker fighters he's got no problems mixing it up. Put him up against somebody who can and will beat his face in, and he'll back down," Green Arrow responded definitively.

"So who do we bring in?" Superman asked the assembled crew.

"Nobody, shut it down," Diana repeated herself.

"I think I've got someone in mind," Batman stated cryptically, ignoring his companion's suggestion.

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Love it? Hate it? Want to rant at me for irrelevant minor grammatical errors? You know where the review box is.


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